willykyu

I think there's a bit of ununderstanding here! The US name of Sonicstage is "Connect Player" so far. When you download from the US connect store site the "Connect Player", you actually download the latest version of Sonicstage. Otherwise, in Europe and Japan, there is a clear distinction between Sonic stage, and Connect player, that are 2 different programs. Connect player is ONLY available when purchasing an A series type Walkman, with its installation CD included. And yes it apears that it is still (even in its latest update) in beta version, still lacks of features and is still full of bugs. Sonicstage 3.4 is now available and you can, without problems, access to the music store and input your ID to purchase atrac files, and download them from it. Maybe then, you haven't installed the proper version? did you install it from US site? what is your region? What surprises me, is that you could test on 3 different computers. I think it's impossible to log to your connect account on three different computers like that. Am I wrong? Tell us a bit more about your situation: what Connect player are you using, from what region, and your credit card number (I'm joking: NEVER give your credit card number o fcourse!!!)

True! A Unicode simple burner, compatible with all sony devices. All codecs available. Example: if you plug a Hi-MD player, only the usable codecs are displayed. If it is a HDD player, other appear etc. It would really be fantastic, it isn't a necessity to copy a CD on your PC, especially when you want to put PCM audio in the player!!!. Imagine you just want to transfer a cd to listen to it for a couple days, and delete it. An other missing function could be an easy deleting option from Sony players. Being stuck with an artists list (or playlist) is a pain to remove just one album (with several artists in it...). Still some way to go...

I've tested it, I have to say that this ap is constantly improving. It's nice and simple, I like the way it organises music, it's an easy to use player, new options are very cool like the "search cd cover/info from a track (excellent) etc. BUUUUT why O WHYYYY isn't there the long awaited UNICODE???? it's still a pain in the arse! impossible to rip a jap CD and have the jap infos displayed!!! so as more than 50% of my music collection is Japanese, I have thoses horrible "??????" instaed. I don't want to use Applocale, it messes everything. It would be so simple to work a little more and add this so common feature, right? and THEN only then Sonicstage could be almost perfect! SONY engineers, are you reading this? why the awful Connect player does it and not Sonicstage?

Well, I installed 1.0.3 version today (the euro one), and was so curious to see what changed. So far, NOTHING. Still 1 to 2 minutes to load, then once displayed one more minute before you can use it. No more infos about what's going on etc. Is this a bad joke? I will let you know if I saw something new or improved after using it a little more... Edit: I'm downloading and installing SS 3.4. But I'm afraid there's still UNICODE missing... I'll tell you too if there's some good news.

Really? how do you know that? cool! It still doesn't tell us what the hell they're gonna do for the official re-launch of Connect service, wich sounds pretty cool (though we don't have news about the jap and euro service re-launch. Is it gonna be unified, a la Itunes?). Will we use Sonicstage? Will there be a new software, and we'll throw SS to the garbage again? I don't know what to think anymore! what about simple consumers who don't want to think or bother of all of these neverending problems... If anyone here has contact with the makers of this long awaited update, tell not to forget UNICODE, wich is in my opinion the only TRUE important thing that SS lacks....sniff. Then I'll be very very happy to use it, as I like it.

WOW, what a mess! I mean, they were going to launch connect service once again, with music, film, games and ebooks contents, through a new version of Connect player, right? So what SONY is telling right now, is "until then" we're going to give you a full compatible version of Sonicstage with A series. I can't imagine for one second that they're gonna drop Connect Player forever, and keep SS instead, it's impossible to me. Are they just going to mix the 2 programs, rename them as Connect player once for all (in US it seems that they're calling SS "Connect Player"...). That's what they planed I guessed, from the beginning. But as you Say Kurisu, if they bolt the functionality, it means that now we have a sonic stage version that wotks pretty fine, and after upgrading it we're not sure how good it's gonna work after the update... well, SONY worries everybody right now. Are they just looking on how it works in other compagnies (Apple?), and compare what they do? I'd like to be a mouse and spy them to know how they think and work. One thing they could do, is to tell us when, and what they're really planning to implement in their sofwares, or better: A QUESTIONNAIRE asking what is the problem, according to consumer's opinion!!!

I'm so SHOCKED myself!!! are they gone completely out of their miind??? Well, the only issue fixed is that the soft runs after one minute of load time!!!! it was just impossible before! for the rest, the Connect player is still the same scandal! Now I struggled and succeded to send all of my music on my A-3000, I haven't touched nor run the soft for a month now!!! how can that be? I'm waiting so hard on a correct update, with a functional, inteligent softawer, wich is so far to be the case! But I'm so shocked about this ugly manager lie! does he hae an A series player? does he use it to listen to music? I DON'T THINK SO, 'cause he's to happy with his Ipod I guess... Don't understand, A series are just wonderful...

YES, I do!!!!!!!! your story comfirms that on Alitalia flights, they HATE PSPs! hahaha On my trip to go back to Tokyo (more than 10 hours! IMAGINE THAT!), I was enjoying "Sponge Bob Square Pants the movie" on a UMD, when suddenly, a very "not friendly at all" italian Steward asked me if what I was watching was a "playstation portable". So I said "YES" BUUUUUZZZZ, wrong answer! He said "I'm sorry , it's forbidden"... I was SO shocked!!!! and SO pissed off! as I couldn't turn my light on to read without waking all the poor Japanese around, sleeping. So I stayed really upset during 8 hours that were left... It's the ONLY company I flew to tell me that. Usually I take Air France, ANA or JAL, and none of them did say anything about portable devices during the flight (except landing and take of, of course). I also have to say that the service isn't good, there not friendly (I haven't seen anyone smiling...) at all. So 1)No good service, and above all 2) no PSP allowed: WHY flying on Alitalia? ( Iguess it is really safe anyway! and meals are ok I must say). Next time I'll try my DS as my trip back is unfortunately on Alitalia ... (no disc, but also NO film!!! and I concerted a bunch of TV series especially for the flight! ARRRRGH). I saw that Elal, the israelian company gave PSPs to the travelers on certain flights to Israel... seems to be a very different way to see things. And it's a very serious compagny as I heard... so what's the big deal with Alitalia? paid by Nintendo or Microsft? huhuhu

Frankly, I'd be ok to beta test too!!!!

Well, that's a good thing. Hopefully there will also be some major bugs fixes, and I'll be able to rip a jap CD correctly on my French Windows XP... and most of all, the possibility to change album properties, and scroll menus of previously entered infos... we still have hope... it can't be worse than today!

The problem in drag n drop and import is that Connect doesn't import all the content droped... I mean, when I try to drag and drop folders with albums, connect import half (or less) of the songs. I then have to do that one by one... it takes forever, with no clear info of the progress. Then I have to check if all the songs are properly imported... pretty annoying. Of course, I also have the "year info" problem. only "1" appears... And connect is the slowest program of all. Takes about 3 or 4 minutes after launching to be usable, and then , it usually freezes for 30 sec when you do something. I have more than 3000 titles in it, and I guess the more you have, the worst it is, espesially if it's imported songs and atrac... I stick to the minimum of use, meaning I only transfer music (wich is very long) and that's all.

If SONY wants to get it right they should once for all fix these UNICODE problems. Every SONY programs and devices should display any languages!!! The applocale solution is far from perfect: if you like hebrew songs, arab music, japanese pop, chinese traditional tunes etc., sure you piss SONY off!!! you're not the kind of consumer they want to bother with...

Thanx Kurisu for the info. Now I can be more patient for the new update this month. But when you say they're one of the best division at sony, well, probably... but nothing shows this in Connect player. They didn't even put half what other software deliver. Well even from scratch, some simple options could be there! But well, I hope they 're aware their soft is far from usable as a player, and a music manager (not even plays gapless... sob...). Well, give them my best wishes for 2006 anyway.

Well, very disappointing CES for SONY I must say. Why O why do they split their softs AGAIN? are we gonna have one Connect player for videos, one for music and one for everything else? what nonsense! but it is to early to say. No news about Connect player only, or mix with sonistage, no V3 etc. Well, the Video service is pretty cool for PSP, BUT no news about what it will be outside of the US. Well always promises, but nothing concrete, and when it comes out it's horrible! ah lalaaaa....they sure have to get it right this time.

Hum, do you remember the player's out in Japan too? It came out on Nov 19th. And we have exactely the same problems. So why US have all the attention??? I thought SONY wanted to have Japan back in their pocket...

My A-3000 handles perfectly Japanese caracters, that's ok, BUT I'm talking about Connect player. I have to encode through Sonicstage, and then import my atrac files. I have a French Windows XP service pack 2 installed, Connect Player last version, and I can tell that it's absolutely impossible to import correctly Japanese CD. It's a big mess. Reading you, I think it maybe a problem with French language, and it doesn't occur with an English OS.

I upgraded. I kind of like this new way to upgrade player through a simple application! everything is automatic. Very cool... but it makes me very pessimistic about a new release soon of a true upgrade... with new features... sniff

I have a japanese A-3000. Languagesoption is the 10th option line from bottom. Japanese English French German Italian Espagnol Cantonese Madarin Corean

It seems like AGES we don't have news about any updates or improvments on our beloved CONNECT Players and its attached A-series... I feel very uncomfortable with the lack of adds on A series... It's obvious that SONY does'nt push it as hard as they should... CONNECT Player's fault? New wonderful walkman out in January in US with colour screen, video playback etc.(arrgh)? they just missing christmas. Could they allow this? I don't think so. What's the hell is happening? I can't even tell my friends to buy one! I 'm too ashamed of this shitty software!!! SONY!! ANSWER US, go* dam* it!!! ARE YOU REALLY HARD AT WORK TO GIVE US A PERFECT SOLUTION??? SOOOON???????!!!!!!!

WOW! well, at least we can say that the G-sensor protection works fine! hahahaha

A series still don't support Atrac lossless. It's written in CONNECT player guide. But nothing's impossible, a a future update could allow players to read that format.

Limitation: as far as I know, but I could miss it, there is no "cd info" option available after ripping a cd. For example, if you ripp offline a cd, and you can't have the infos right away, you can't bring them afterwards. That's a very useful oprtion, that's a big miss in Connect player

What country Connect store are you using, and on what software? Japan, US and Euro stores are quite different! Euro one, I'm sometimes using, is atrocious. Extremely poor in contents, full of bugs, almost updates free, and slow. I guess the japanese one is better, and the US one too. I'm not sure though. I buy some music on it from time to time. As I'm French but live in Japan, it's sometimes convinient to buy French titles from the Connect store... though there's not much. And sometimes I'm just lasy to go and buy the CD of an album I like. But there's room for improvements... I guess it's just around the corner, as CONNECT Store europe put an enquete on their site a month ago, where you could answer about several things you wanted to see changing, and special serveices you would use if available, as video download ("would you be ready to pay for it?"), and month submition, to download freely as much content as you like... but it wasn't clear as they talked about "free downloads of "old" connect titles (?), and one free album you can keep per month for about 16 euros.... interesting. But when all these major changes appear is a great mistrey... as usual... hope everything's fonna be ready for PS3 launch! it has to be. SONY does'nt have any goo service yet (excpet the new P-TV rental videos for psp in Japan, which is neat I have to say, but not heavy in content... ).

I updated mine (wich is a jap model). I guess there is no problem in using this file. When I used it, French was diplayed. It seems that SONY don't use any limited regional applications. The installation is a bit unusual but it's automatic. I guess this is just to fix a file letter issue for japanese people when using files not written in Japanese. That's maybe why they don't provide it on Euro sites. Anyway, I was excited, but desapointed then... hope it was the beginnig of something cool! I'm tired of waiting. Japan is REALLY the country of patience...

Excellent ! very instructive!!! I don't quite understand about the big earphones juice though... What I find extremely cool on Sony's devices is the Line-out option. Do Ipods have it? So I don't get why the SONY's devices can't handle big earphones... I 'll test that when I have the occasion. Interesting. I own an A-3000 and I fond of it. It's so gorgeous in real, I'm amazed by its beauty everyday (I have it since November 19) and its great sound quality, really (as usual in fact). I'm so sick and tired of Ipod design... About the use of it I must say, it's very good. I used Ipods too, and I found it very cool too. Nothing in my opinion can be compared to the Ipods wheels wich are excellent. But there's a huge improvement on the A series. So easy to find what you want, very well thoufgt. I hope that with future updates the options will be improved, as the disk access; and why not a clock etc. But thanx for this, it was great to read!!!